Ugly Christmas Sweaters
by justanoutlaw
Summary: The Charming and Hood-Mills families get together for a holiday portrait.


Loboselinaistrash sent me a prompt from a list of holiday ones I reblogged: "This photo is going to look amazing on a Christmas card." My take on how the first Christmas after the final battle should've gone.

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Emma wanted to burn the sweater that sat in front of her. When Snow had first suggested that they take a family Christmas photo, she had agreed. Then she got another idea: they'd all wear ugly sweaters. Emma thought it was a joke, until her mom had left the folded up reindeer sweater on her bed. The nose lit up upon being squeezed.

There was a sudden knocking at her door. Turning around, she snorted upon seeing her father. He was already wearing his own sweater, it had the Grinch on it and was true to its word on being ugly.

"Nice one," she said.

David smirked. "I happen to think I make it look dashing."

"You would. Say, if I magicked this sweater away…"

"Your mom would just make you wear another one that's worse. Henry already tried to write his away with his author magic."

Emma laughed. "Has he learned nothing yet?"

"Apparently not."

She threw the sweater over her t-shirt and fixed her hair in the mirror before allowing her mom to lead her downstairs. Henry was down there with Regina, Robin and Roland, all of them donning their own ugly sweaters. Emma had no clue how her mother had talked Regina into wearing one, but there was no doubting that the once feud between the Evil Queen and the princess was long over. Regina saw Emma smirking and cast her a glare.

"Shut up, Rudolph."

"I will as long as you do, Frosty."

Henry tilted his head back. "Can we hurry this up? I promised Violet I'd be over at her house for the Christmas party."

"Patience, kid. I don't even think the photographer is here yet," Emma pointed out. She couldn't help but smile at how cute he looked in his candy cane sweater.

"Is everyone here?" Snow's voice drifted from the doorway. Emma turned to find her mom standing there, wearing her own snowman sweater, it was truly ugly. Neal was in her arms, he had lucked out. It was hard to find ugly sweaters for infants, so he had ended up in a Charlie Brown Christmas one, wearing antlers on his head. Roland and Peanut were wearing a similar ones.

David wrapped an arm around her. "Just waiting on Sidney, love."

It wasn't long before he actually did. Emma rolled her eyes as he rearranged their positions a million times, making sure that no one was covering anyone. She had the faintest memories from the Wish Realm and posing for portraits. Even Singing Princess Emma who never gave as much as an eye roll had detested them. She knew how important this picture was to her mom, though. The final battle had been fought, all the villains were handled and they could finally breathe. They had long since buried the hatchet with Regina and she was a part of their family, as were Robin and his children.

It had been a long road. Previous Christmases had been spent battling villains or spent split across the realms (with Emma and Henry having no memories of the family they lost), but this year, it was different. They were all together and nothing could rip them apart.

Unfortunately, not every picture was perfect. In one, the babies were fussing in David and Robin's arms and Henry wasn't exactly smiling. Emma had put her elbow on Regina's head to wind her up over being so short without her heels. Snow was casting a backwards glance at David like "Can you believe what I have to put up with?"

Yet, when Snow was looking over the different pictures, it made her laugh. It was the perfect representation of what their family was: loud, messy, not always perfect. Yet, it was so filled with love. They would do anything to protect each other, no matter what happened. The nicer ones would go on the mantle and she'd send copies to Regina, but she held up the silly one.

"This photo is going to look amazing on the Christmas card," she said to David.

He couldn't help but laugh and kiss her cheek. "Whatever you say, hon."

And just weeks later, the photo would be in everyone's mailboxes, with the tagline….

 _Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from The Charmings._

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I do accept prompts! Whether it be on here, Tumblr or Twitter. I have two Tumblr accounts: just-an-outlaw and justanoutlawfanfiction. My Twitter is: justanoutlawfic.


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